New Orleans musical legend Willie Tee takes root in Princeton.
By: Susan Van Dongen
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
Musical legend Wilson Turbinton also known as "Willie Tee" knows only too well.
After a lifetime spent in the Crescent City, where he’s seen countless coastal storms and hurricanes come and go, the demonic winds and waters of Katrina dislodged him from his home.
Mr. Turbinton says he and his family headed to Memphis, Tenn., where long-time friends in the music business took them in, but early last fall he was surprised to be invited to Princeton, thanks in part to recommendations from Toni Morrison and Cornel West.
Since October, he’s been the Visiting Senior Research Musician in the music department at Princeton University, lecturing on his special knowledge of music and the recording industry, leading several small ensembles and making friends throughout the university and community.
"I had been in New York playing at a fundraiser, ‘Music Cares,’ and I got a call from Scott Burnham at Princeton University," Mr. Turbinton says. "He said Toni Morrison had suggested the university have an artist-in-residence from New Orleans and, along with a recommendation from Cornel West, they reached out to me. The university had done a lot of research and they felt I would be perfect. But at first when they told me they wanted me to be their artist-in-residence, I had to think about it because I didn’t know what it meant."
Even though he had never met Ms. Morrison or Mr. West, they certainly knew him, probably from his long career as a singer, composer, pianist, producer and arranger. As "Willie Tee," Mr. Turbinton was a fixture at Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club in New Orleans, where many a music-loving visitor made a pilgrimage to hear him tickle the ivories. The club re-opened in February and is missing its star attraction, who is not sure when he might return.
In fact, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Turbinton is just one of many New Orleans jazz musicians who have been displaced, and some have no intention of returning. So the hurricane not only changed the physical landscape of the Big Easy, it upset the artistic terrain as well.
For Mr. Turbinton, the longing for New Orleans is partly for the music, friends and gigs he left behind, but it’s mostly for family.
"The biggest decision in all this is that I’m displaced from my family," he says, noting that the position at the university will wrap up in June although his stay may be extended. "It’s a monumental decision as far as what ultimately will happen, and it’s the uncertainty that is the biggest problem where am I really going to wind up? I intend to restore my home in New Orleans because I have roots there I’ve lived there 62 years. And I’ve had opportunities to leave, but I always chose to stay.
"I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom, because I’ve been blessed more than most, having safe refuge for this length of time in a beautiful atmosphere and in a place that has allowed me to be productive," he continues. "This is a wonderful community, and it gives me access to New York, the heartbeat of the music industry. It don’t get no better than that."
He and 17 members of the immediate and extended Turbinton family left the day before Hurricane Katrina hit, inching north toward Memphis. Mr. Turbinton said the family had had a trial run a few weeks before, with another hurricane that bypassed New Orleans. The fact that the city was spared that time brought both relief and frustration to evacuees who had spent hours on the road. Mr. Turbinton reckons that’s one of the reasons why residents weren’t so eager to leave their homes yet again.
"That trip was such a mess it took seven hours to go what would normally take 30 minutes," Mr. Turbinton says. "You see so much on the road cars breaking down, filled with old folks, sick folks just trying to get out of harm’s way. Leaving is not an easy decision to make. I think that’s why so many people in New Orleans decided to take a chance and ride out (Katrina). They understood the seriousness of it, but it’s a monumental experience when you start taking elderly folks out of the hospital and their homes."
The musician resided in the Lakeview area of New Orleans in a section called Oak Park, where he says he was vulnerable to problems with two levees.
"I got water coming in from the 17th Avenue breech as well as the London Avenue canal," Mr. Turbinton says. "I had between eight and nine feet of water in my house so everything was destroyed none of my possessions were salvageable."
Losing a home studio and its treasures instruments, tapes and master recordings was especially heartbreaking.
"It’s a humbling experience," Mr. Turbinton says. "I thought I was leaving for three days and never anticipated losing everything. Some of the stuff is my legacy. For example, at one time I was produced by Cannonball Adderley and a lot of those master recordings have been destroyed. There are recordings of me and my brother that are gone now, as well as unreleased stuff that has more and more value as you get older. But I realized that I was blessed to get out in time."
When he speaks of his brother, Mr. Turbinton is talking about the legendary saxophonist Earl Turbinton Jr., "The African Cowboy." Looking up to his older sibling, young Wilson started playing piano around age 3, and grew up on equal shares of bebop, Little Richard’s rhythm and blues and the eclectic beat of a New Orleans street parade. Mr. Turbinton names Oscar Peterson, Horace Silver, Art Tatum and Jimmy Smith as early influences.
Young "Willie Tee" caught the attention of Cannonball Adderley and his brother, Nat Adderley, who signed him to their production company, releasing I’m Only a Man (Capitol) in 1968.
He might be better known, however, as the musical architect of the Wild Magnolias, the fabled Mardi Gras Indian group who did the New Orleans classic "Smoke My Peace Pipe" in the early ’70s.
Mr. Adderley’s pianist, the great Joe Zawinul, is one of Mr. Turbinton’s biggest fans. After Adderley’s band, Zawinul fueled Weather Report with its mid- ’70s jazz fusion-funk blend. He invited Mr. Turbinton to stir up the funk even more, which resulted in the song "Can It Be Done," on Weather Report’s 1984 release Domino Theory (Columbia), one of the few times the group recorded a vocal performance.
Recently, Mr. Turbinton was a featured guest on Dr. John’s N’Awlinz: Dis Dat or d’Udder (Blue Note, 2004). He also had a small part in the Oscar-winning movie Ray.
"I have a cult following from some of my earlier records from the ’60s, in fact I just got inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame," Mr. Turbinton says. "And some of my stuff was sampled by rap artists. I’ve had a very blessed life and career.
"That’s why I think my work preceded me here," he continues. "Toni and Cornel didn’t know me personally, but I believe they knew my music. I found it an awesome thing to happen, to have people out there who are aware of you, who reach out to you like this. I happened to be one of the lucky ones. I just know there are miracles that can happen."
Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton is Visiting Senior Research Musician in the music department at Princeton University. E-mail: [email protected]. On the Web: www.willietee.com